The Moose Hunt; A three part series

OzaawaaMigiziNini

Algonquin Provincial Park is one of Canada's largest parks, providing protection to Deer, moose, bear, wolf, ospreys, loons and even the occasional woodsman.

However, the Southern portion of Algonquin Park has been hunting grounds for so long, that the Province is still allowing it to happen. However, it's tightly managed, and unless you have the contacts to get in there, you won't have much luck getting there with a rifle. Luckily for me, I always have an in Wink

.

At 5:30 am I left Buckhorn Ontario and drove up to Whitney Ontario. After meeting the other hunters we drove approximately 40km (roughly 20 miles) into deep bush, with sign of moose everywhere (including the sighting of a yearling cow), as well as sign of the one animal none of us would ever have the chance to put our rifle sights on; an Algonquin Red Wolf. We had to go over 3 seperate streams, all of which posed their own problems (either so steep our atv trailer would disengage from one truck, or so swift of a current and so deep, that another hunter's vehicle was being threatened to flow downstream and into a beaver dam!).

We finally arrived at the camp, and set to work cleaning the bunkhouse, splitting cedar kindling for the woodstoves, and feasting on some dinner in the cookhouse. The next day, two more of our hunting party arrived, and on Sunday the final member of our eight-man team drove into camp. We were in the southernmost reach of what is nicknamed the "Spruce-Moose Forest", bordering Haliburton Forest, Whitney and several other smaller townships. Black bear sign was present nearly daily, as was moose sign. On the weekend my cousin and I were spending our time looking for good wallows and scrapes. I carried an 870 Express Magnum with a smooth bore. Loaded in it was dove shot for partridge and grouse, while in the breast pocket I carried rifled slugs incase we stumbled across a moose, or had a bear that got too curious. We brought back one Ruffed grouse and two Hungarian Partridge, and I collected a healthy supply of true tinder fungus from the birches.

Monday was spent on the far side of the lake we were camped on, studying sign, looking for anything promising. I was set up on a watch overlooking a small beaver dam. Around 10:30 in the morning I heard heavy, hooved crunches in the woods on the other side of the pond. The balsam firs and tamaracks were so thick on that hill that I couldn't even see the moose. I stayed still and sadly had to listen to the young bull walk over the hill and head towards.. another hunting party who got a clear shot and drove off with a fat, strong moose that would have provided me a lot of meat, a good hide, and lots of sinews and bones. Needless to say I was a bit miffed.

As I walked up to my father's post around noon, I came across some fresh deer scat, a few wolf tracks, and a huge bush of labrador tea. I shared a smoke and a bottle of water with my dad, all the while cutting and harvesting the evergreen herb that tastes so good in a mug.

We went back to camp, but on the way, my cousin and I finally found the motherload.. a marsh about 2 kms long, all sphagnum bog with at least a dozen fresh wallows (the smell alone was proof of their freshness). We scanned the terrain with scopes and binoculars, and finally decided, this was our spot, this was where we would get our moose.

Continued later in Part Two..
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A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:23 pm Post subject:

Dude, I just found this post!!! PART 2. . . .PART 2. . . .PART 2. . . .I can't wait!!!!
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ArizonaBushman · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:10 pm Post subject:

Hey where did this post come from??? I have honestly never seen this one....I think.
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j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:22 pm Post subject:

Dude I know, leave it to Oz to be a sneaky Canadian ninja with his mystery posts out of no where!!
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

ArizonaBushman · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:37 pm Post subject:

I think Caleb was telling me about this on the phone. It seems familiar!
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Always a Student, Never a Master.

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:17 pm Post subject:

Well leave it to a JUNIOR BUSHMAN LACKY to divulge details on the phone before posting. . .LOL
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OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:20 pm Post subject:

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:58 pm Post subject:

sorry to hear that man, wish you luck in the recovery, talk to you soon bro!!
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 9:42 am Post subject:

No bodies to recover... so far the trail is colder then my ex girlfriend
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A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

practicalsurvivor · graduate Joined: 26 Jul 2009 Posts: 195

Sorry for the loss brother. Sad

Thanks for taking the time to share your hunt with us.
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practicalsurvivor.com

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 8:22 pm Post subject:

That sucks bro, maybe in the spring you will have some better luck. . . maybe. . . .

I have faith in your skills bro!!
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:41 pm Post subject:

After a dinner of fried Pickerell and a night sharpening my Nessmuk knife and making sure my .308 Remington 7600 was cleaned, oiled and ready to slay some big ungulates, the hunt of our new territory began. Before leaving camp I drank six large cups of coffee, and about two nalgenes of water (you'll see why)

My cousin found a small island in amongst the sphagnum moss. This moss can fill an entire bog, competing with the infamous Cattail plant for territory. Before I headed into my site (another island half a kilometre west of my cousin's island), I used my Nessmuk to scrape up a young beech tree. I let the shavings fly all over the place, hanguing from branches and carpeting the forest floor. I then kicked out a large (6ft x 2.5ft) patch of dirt below this scrape. I urinated in the patch six times in one hour (this sounds weird but I'll explain), and then sprayed cow urine on same patch. Once I could barely tolerate the smell anymore, I stomped the muck with my boots until a deep wallow was formed, with the urine soaked mud covering the soles of my kodiak boots. As long as there is a heavy scent of urine in the wallows, regardless of species, the bull moose will consider it competition, and also urinate in the wallow.

After I had completed this, my cousin bellowed like a bull moose on his island. I mooed back like a lovesick cow moose. I then walked from the manmade wallow, and visited the other wallows, making sure the urine covered mud flicked off my boots. At each wallow I sprayed more of the cow urine, and mooed. My cousin would respond each time.

What this is called, is scent laying. As long as a rutting bull moose visits this marsh, he will pick up on the scent and consider it a challenge to his territory.. the fact that the calls and the cow urine would make him think a willing female is in the area, and another male was to would increase his tenacity. It paid off.. kinda..

We sat on our islands, peeling and eating apples, calling to eachother as a bull and cow every hour or so, until sunset. No sign except for a few ravens (and I mean real Corvus corax, not the lil crows most folks think are ravens.. think of a bird with a beak that can crack the skull of an eagle with no effort and you see why I love these birds) and red squirrels. We left the site slowly, again bellowing calls and remarking the wallows (God bless Coffee and water, even though my kidneys don't agree).

The next morning we got up even earlier. I repeated my ritual of heavy coffee and water intake (I barely made it to the wallow this time). My wallow was empty of any fresh sign, but only 10 yards off I found fresh tracks, dulled at the points, which means it was a bull. Good sign for a urinal, eh? After refreshing my wallow and making a few of my own bull calls, we carried on to examine the other wallows. Between each wallow we found the ice cracked and shattered, with clear moose tracks in the muck. When we got to the final wallow my heart skipped a beat.. the muddy waters were still stirring.. a moose had just been there! With a lot of wild game this is a great sight, and time to start tracking. With moose it is next to pointless to begin tracking. They can travel much further distances in the same quagmires a human goes through, in a fraction of the time. And in the rut, no moose stays in the same area for long. We could be on a wild goose chase (wild moose chase perhaps?) following such a trail. The best tactic is using scent marking and calling. This will bring in many roving moose. The trick though is patience, and even though the rutting moose is often less cautious, they are masters of camoflauge in the northern bush. Even the most experienced of big game hunters have been foiled by a single moose.. anyone here that has only deer or turkey hunted and thinks they are a challenge, take this from one of your fellow whitetail and barred turkey hunters.. nothing is as frustrating as trying to bag a moose.. nothing.. Even elk in my opinion.

We remarked all of the wallows and returned to our sites, repeating our process of calling to one another. I had run out of cigarettes, and my rolling papers had gotten soaked the day before, so all of my loose tobacco was going to be hard to puff on. While waiting for moose I whittled a bush-pipe with my opinel knife. I used cedar because.. well.. it's the only wood you can find in these sphagnum bogs! Not the best wood to use as a pipe, because it burns so readily, but even with a slight cedar taste to the tobaccy, I had a decent smoke.

Again, the moose outsmarted us in the hunt, because not one sign of a moose came near us, even with other hunting parties all around us using barking dogs to send the moose on the run, we saw not a damned sign. We got up and started to head back to camp. Dinner? Lasagna and moose sausages.. how I am supposed to lose weight while in the wilderness on this kind of diet escapes my logic.

The next morning my cousin and I were both late to get up due to late nights (my cousin because of his joy in the brew, me because I had to babysit him and three other enjoyers of the brew). Only two other guys were in the camp, and seeing as the moose were stubborn to come out after 9 in the morning, both him and I were debating the choice to go into our stand. While debating it, and rolling a cigarette out of the page of some old notebook, I overheard on the radio (all hunters here must carry raidos for safety reasons) that one of our hunters had seen a young bull, and he needed two other guys to come help him out. My cousin and another of the hunters grabbed their rifles and headed up to the northside of the lake. I didn't want to go along simply to keep the numbers controllable.. last thing I want is so many guys around they have trouble having safe shots at a fast animal.. and yes, a moose is damn well fast.

I sat at my stand, smoking and waiting, enjoying an oddly warm sunshine. I had remarked all of the wallows, and made a few dozen cow calls in the last two hours, when suddenly I heard two sharp cracks from a .308 over on the northside of the lake. Three minutes later a fuzzy call sounded from the radio...
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A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:19 pm Post subject:

Caleb you are killing me with these cliff hangers bro, I gotta hear more asap please with sugar on top, hell I will even give you that pony you asked for on FB as long as a pink my little pony toy is aceptable, it also may or may not have been colored and painted by my daughter and is possibly missing hair since she found the scissors the other day. . .
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:23 pm Post subject:

...That may just do it for me..

But I refuse to post any more until I get some responses from John.. Bossman has to get stir crazy before I post ;-)
_________________
A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:35 pm Post subject:

I could call him right now, but I thik I may just let him respond on his own, you remember what happened last time he and I were on the phone and on the forum all at once . . . I believe you ended up with a new rank . . . Smile

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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:45 pm Post subject:

Y'know what...

I might just make my own forum, add you on there and change YOUR rank..

I think "Grand Fairy Princess" sounds fitting..
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A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:50 pm Post subject:

As long as my avatar can be a pretty little fairy, that says "Oz is #1" . . . LOL, gotta love ya bro!!
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject:

....I should get that avatar Surprised

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A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:52 pm Post subject:

I will start gooling for one if not microsoft paint always works
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:56 pm Post subject:

Lol sounds good. I'll make it my avatar if it looks pretty ;-)
_________________
A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:09 pm Post subject:

Ok, since I am finding you a new avatar, then it is only fair I let you pick a new one for me as well. I will email you when I find a good one!!
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:15 pm Post subject:

How about this?
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A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:27 pm Post subject:

HAHAHAHAHA nice!!!
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

OzaawaaMigiziNini · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:29 pm Post subject:

It's all good now Pilgrim..

I'll add the avatar when I get back home on Monday.
_________________
A real man uses his knife as a pillow.. on a bed made from fire..

j_wilson (howlin wolf) · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:29 pm Post subject:

. . . SLACKER!!! It's alright you get a 2 day pass
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"Respect is the one thing money can't buy, it takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in the blink of an eye"

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